Internal Restorations - The Bodleian Library

The reconstruction of the Bodleian Library which proceeded for nine years without a break was made possible by the building of the New Library, structurally complete in 1939 and formally opened by King George VI in 1946. ….   The basic plan was to convert the two upper floors into continuous ranges of specialized reading rooms and the ground floor Schools into offices and other domestic quarters badly needed for the work of the library and the convenience of readers. The top floor had always been a continuous gallery provided by Sir Thomas Bodley's intention as “a very large supplement for the stowage of books," Parts of it had been in use as reading rooms before the war and it only required sympathetic handling to recover much of its original splendour. The two lower floors, each originally containing six spacious auditoria of the Jacobean Schools, had been used for a century or more as an increasingly congested bookstack for the library. It was found at an early stage that all the original wooden floors on both levels were so rotten and infested with beetles that complete replacement, by steel and concrete, desirable in any event to reduce the alarming fire risk, was. essential for structural safety. Apart from the necessity to make a clean sweep of rotten timber, the aim throughout was to retain and enhance the beautiful proportions of the original Schools as the worthiest setting for their new purpose.  Under the skilful guidance of Sir Hubert Worthington as architect, the craftsmen of Messrs. Benfield & Loxley, the contractors, have triumphantly achieved this aim. In the course of the work. [The Times, Tuesday, 3 January, 1956; page 8]

Reference           The Times (London, England), Tuesday, 3 January, 1956; page 8